Final Stretch Music Festival marks end of track season

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SARATOGA SPRINGS >> As the summer thoroughbred racing season began in Saratoga, so it shall end — accompanied by music in the streets of the Racing City.

Opening weekend of the meet back in July brought Hats Off to Saratoga, a mini music festival at numerous outdoor locations over two days, co-sponsored by the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce and New York Racing Association. With the meet’s final week in gear after the excitement of Travers Day, the chamber and NYRA are teaming up again for the Final Stretch Music Festival.

This Saturday and Sunday will feature eight acts both days at eight different locations in the downtown area.

“I’m going to guess we had on opening night of Hats Off an estimated 25,000 people down here in the streets of Saratoga enjoying the music and downtown,” chamber President Todd Shimkus said. “We could have ten to fifteen thousand for Final Stretch.”

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The smaller crowd, of course, reflects an ending rather than a beginning, and something of a natural let-down after the Travers hype. Saratoga Race Course’s closing weekend marks somewhat of a wind-down in the tourist crowd and the Spa City’s return to its regional stalwarts.

“I’m not sure if it’s designed this way,” Shimkus said, “but that final week is sort of when a lot of locals come to visit the track after many of the visitors have moved on.”

Eight different curbside locations come into play, from Ellsworth Jones Place, adjacent to the City Center on Broadway, to the drive-through at Adirondack Trust Co. Bank, to a stage near Ben & Jerry’s on Phila Street.

The festival also includes Caroline and Division streets, downtown’s nightlife hubs. They offer an eclectic selection of musicians, mostly hailing from the upstate and Hudson Valley music scenes — the only exception being Western-style Marc Berger Band at Division Street and Broadway. It’s an-all-new lineup from the July fest.

An Albany-based bar band in the old-school R&B vein, Solid Smoke, will set up at Ellsworth Place. Holding down the prime territory on Caroline Street will be Scotty Mac and the Goldtops, a blues-and-old-time-rock trio fresh off Friday night gigs at Saratoga Race Course and Druthers, recently opening for REO Speedwagon at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. A play-everything outfit called Breaking The Silence will perform outside of Eddie Bauer on the main drag, and a Brooklyn-based roots-rock ensemble called The Hollows, featuring mandolins to accordions to horns, are slotted outside the Post Office on Broadway.

Saratoga club scene regular Pat Attanasio — a frequent fixture at 9 Maple Avenue in the Spa City — will set up at the Collamer lot for his jazz-rock-funk fusion. Rich Ortiz, a Local’s Choice winner in the Saratoga.com poll and a singer-songwriter in the Jim Croce/James Taylor mode, will hunker down at Adirondack Trust Co.

Finally, on the Phil Street stage, Tarryn Ward and Chris Davidson, contemporary folk-Americana mavens who are seen widely in the Hudson Valley, will perform.

“The diversity of the music is pretty extraordinary,” Shimkus said. “We try to have a little something for everybody. And a lot of these bands and musicians have a following. We ask the bands to reach out to the folks through their social media contacts. And we close off a couple of city streets to give people an opportunity to dance.”

Tents will be set up in the event of inclement weather, so barring high winds or an electrical storm, the festivities are rain or shine.

“This has been going on for decades. It was created a number of years ago through a partnership between the chamber and NYRA as a way of attracting people to the track by day and downtown at night,” Shimkus said of the Final Stretch and Hats Off festivals.

“We add music to an already vibrant downtown, with lots of opportunities to create some noise, literally, and see some things you wouldn’t if you were just coming to the track. It’s really about creating some fun, a festive atmosphere on the downtown streets after dark.”

The Final Stretch Music Festival is set to take place from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on the streets of downtown Saratoga Springs. For information on the lineup of bands, obtain a map from many downtown merchants or visit www.saratoga.org.